Restoration work has begun at Asbury House, part of the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church parcel that was sold on July 10.
Scaffolding went up this week in front of the four-story mansion at 10 E. Mount Vernon Place — a sign that its new owner is wasting no time fixing it up.
The house is one of two adjoining properties sold this month by the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. The other property is the 1872 church at 2 E. Mount Vernon Place. It was sold to a preservation-oriented nonprofit, UNITE Mount Vernon Inc., which has leased part of the church back to the congregation and plans to renovate other spaces in the building, including its 900-seat sanctuary, for new uses.
Asbury House, which most recently housed the church offices, was sold to a separate but related buyer known as Asbury House LLC. Initial plans call for restoration of the front façade and weathered front door, and repair or replacement of the roof, including a domed skylight. The façade is clad in a mix of brownstone and greenstone, which makes the surface flakier than the fronts of traditional brownstone-clad rowhouses on the block. Plans for the interior are still evolving.
Asbury House LLC is the fifth owner of Asbury House, which is named after Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist bishop. It was constructed around 1855 for Albert Schumacher, a shipping magnate. At the time, it was one of the most impressive houses in Baltimore, with mosaic interior finishes, octagonal parlors and an unusual “hanging spiral staircase.”
The house was sold in 1893 to George von Lingen, the German consul in Baltimore. He is credited with bringing in German craftsmen to create a second-floor library with intricate carvings, built-in bookcases and a large painting on the ceiling. The church congregation acquired the residence in 1957 to house its offices and renamed it in honor of the Methodist bishop.
About eight years ago, the congregation transferred both the church and Asbury House to the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, with members saying the congregation could no longer afford to maintain the church but wanted to continue worshipping there. The conference put the buildings on the market in 2020 and, after one contract fell through, sold both of them last week.
Asbury House is one of several historic properties that are getting façade restorations in Mount Vernon this summer. Scaffolding recently came down at 28 E. Mount Vernon Place after a comprehensive renovation that substantially reduced the number of apartments there, and scaffolding has gone up in front of 708 St. Paul St., around the corner.
